SOME NEW BOOKS. 



Types of Animal Life. By St. George Mivart. Small 8vo. Pp. viii and 374. 

 Illustrated. London: Osgood, Mcllvaine & Co., 1S93. Price 6s. 



Authors sometimes fail to do themselves justice by not selecting a 

 sufficiently comprehensive title for their productions, but this omission 

 certainly cannot be charged against Professor Mivart in regard to the 

 present work. When we first opened the volume before us we not 

 unnaturally expected to find a work somewhat on the lines of the late 

 Professor Rolleston's well-known " Forms of Animal Life," in which 

 typical representatives of the leading groups of animals of all kinds 

 would be treated in the author's well-known style. Our surprise was 

 accordingly great when we found that " Types of Animal Life " really 

 meant, at the most, " Types of Vertebrate Life," and chiefly "Types 

 of Mammalian Life." As a matter of fact, the work is exclusively 

 restricted to those groups of Vertebrates possessing limbs differentiated 

 into the full number of segments, and consists mainly of essays on the 

 leading groups of Mammals ; certain chapters being devoted to Birds, 

 Reptiles, and Amphibians — apparently with the intention of pointing 

 out the essential differences of the members of these groups from 

 Mammals. As a whole, the work may be regarded as a companion 

 to the author's recently-published " Elements of Ornithology," with 

 a chapter on Birds which, in our opinion, might have been 

 advantageously omitted. 



The author commences his subject with a well-written disserta- 

 tion on monkeys, as the representatives of the highest order of 

 Mammals; and in the next chapter takes the opossum as his text for 

 a sermon on the lower members of the same class. The next three 

 chapters are devoted to the representatives of the lower Vertebrates 

 coming within the scope of the work, namely, Birds, Reptiles, and 

 Amphibians; while in the sixth chapter the author rexerts to Mammals, 

 taking the Carolina bat as a typical example of the Chiroptera. Then 

 follows a chapter headed the American bison, in which the Ungulates 

 are dealt with ; while another, under the title of the racoon, introduces us 

 to the Carnivores ; and a third, designated the sloth, treats of the Eden- 

 tates. In the tenth chapter, the title sea-lion appropriately 

 designates a dissertation on the seals in general ; while of the two 

 remaining chapters, one is devoted to whales and sirenians (called by 

 the author "mermaids") and the second treats of such Mammals as are 

 not mentioned in the foregoing sections. The last chapter, by the 

 way, is entitled "the other beasts," which leads us to remark that, in 

 our opinion, it is decidedly a pity the author has thought fit through- 

 out the work to follow the lead of the late Professor Parker in 

 employing the objectionable term "beasts" in place of the now 

 familiar mammals. 



The work is fully illustrated and pleasantly written, and is 

 admirably adapted for such readers as wish to gain a general idea of 



